JamieLogical

I "only" lost 14 pounds my first month. I "only" lost 8 pounds my second month. I "only" averaged about 6 pounds a month for several months after that. As I approached my one year surgiversay, I was "only" losing about 2 pounds a month. But you know what? All of those "only"s still got me to my goal weight where I've been maintaining for 4 months. I've said it so many times, but it bears repeating. Ten years from now, when you are living your full, happy, healthy life, do you really think you're going to be looking back and wishing you'd lost the weight one or two or even 6 months faster? Nope! As long as you stick to the plan, you will get where you are going and how long it takes to get there will soon be irrelevant.

Welcome! This is such a great site for getting info, support, and just sharing your experiences. I hope you find everything you need and are looking for here. Do not hesitate to post your questions and concerns. A lot of the same questions get asked over and over again, so you might find some answers through searching, but there's no harm in repeating a question either. So many people here are happy to help. It sounds like you have decided on WLS for all the right reasons, so if you stay committed and focused, you should be very successful!

WTF? Why would your surgeon say you need to be at your ideal weight at 6 months? That's completely insane! It took me a year to reach my goal weight and I had a LOT less to lose than you. What is with the rush? Did he give you any sort of rationale for why you have to lose the weight so quickly?

This is completely normal. There are many factors involved that could be causing this. First off, you were under anesthesia for the surgery and on several meds post-op. Any of which could impair your thinking. This is one of the reasons you aren't supposed to drive while on pain meds. Secondly, you aren't taking in many calories right now and your body is burning a massive amount of energy to heal itself. You simply don't have the energy to sustain your focus. Finally, you are probably eating few or no carbs at all right now and carbs are the only form of energy your brain can use.

Being able to drink is normal. A lot of people experience swelling that makes drinking challenging in the first couple of weeks post-op. You just don't have as much swelling, which is awesome! Diarrhea is also normal and I think the only cause for concern might be if you become dehydrated because of it. Since you aren't having trouble getting your liquids in, dehydration is less of a risk. But you should call your surgeon if you are concerned. There's no harm in calling if it brings you peace of mind.

Do you have a retirement account? Some retirement plans will let you borrow money against them without paying any fees or taxes for early withdrawal. They have very low interest rates and a large portion of the interest goes back to you as return-on-investment. It's something to look into. I do not have this option BUT... I had been holding off telling my grandmother due to the fact I didn't want her to cry and try to talk me out of it but I told her yesterday and she was very supportive. She also offered to loan me the money from when she sold her house! Now I can just pay her back and save thousands in interest. Whew. I got super lucky there!!!! That is awesome! It's great that she turned out to be so supportive AND offer up the money! I remember how much I dreaded telling my parents about my decision to have WLS, but then they ended up being all for it and proud of me! I love it when our loved ones surprise us!

http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/2007/08/pureed-foods.html The baked ricotta recipe saved me in my soft food stage!

I think that psychologist was a big poopy head, but what she said wasn't wrong. Study after study has proven that long term maintenance of weight loss is almost impossible. Are there people who do it? Yes! Are you likely to be one of those people? The odds are NOT in your favor. I was just like you. I'd lost weight many times on my own. The largest amount at once was 90 pounds over the course of a year. But I'd lost 60 here, 40 there, 25 there. You get the idea. My problem was never weight LOSS. I am a pro at weight loss. If weight loss were an Olympic sport, I'd have at least three gold medals! My challenge was always weight maintenance. And that's the true challenge for the VAST majority of obese people. With conventional forms of weight loss (diet and exercise), the problem is, it's always a "diet". It is, by definition, a temporary thing. We set a goal. If we work hard we get to that goal. And then once we are at that goal, we are "done". And even if we do have the discipline to get to that goal and stay there for some period of time, something always happens that throws us off our game. An injury, an illness, a death in the family, real life..... Something gets us off track and we gain a few pounds and we're like "no big deal, I'll get back on track when this crisis is over". Then next thing you know, it's a year later and you are right back where you started! In July of 2014, I was back within 10 pounds of my highest weight. I was looking at that long road of diet and exercise to lose the weight once again, but I just KNEW that even if I did lose the weight all over again, it would be the same old tune. I would just gain it back again eventually. So I decided to break the cycle. I researched WLS and I took the plunge in September 2014. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Now I am at goal and I have a tool to get me through all those road blocks that would have sent my weight skyrocketing back up in the past. I've been maintaining for 4 months. In those 4 months, I've sold and moved out of my old house, moved into my new house, hosted people for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, been sick a few times... You know what? I haven't gained back one single pound! Stress of moving? No problem! Holidays? Easy! Sick and unable to exercise? Oh well! With my sleeve, I am never "done" like I would have been on a "diet". When the going gets tough, my sleeve is still there to support me and do its thing. Does it work better when I work with it? Sure! But now I feel like I have this safety net to get me through rough times and give me the chance to get back on track again without having to regain 50+ pounds in the interim.

You really shouldn't worry. Like you said, there's no way you ate an extra 17,500 calories! It's definitely just water weight and will come back off eventually. The important thing to do is get back into your routine of what you know works for you.

Congrats on your progress so far! It sounds like you have a really great attitude. I highly encourage you to stick around these forums and become active in posting and responding to posts. I find that it keeps me accountable and focused, when it otherwise might be easy to just get complacent. I also find that it makes me feel good to "pay it forward" so to speak. These forums were a HUGE help to me pre-op and immediately post-op (still are sometimes!), so I like to be able to answer questions for the new people or address their concerns.

Are you tracking your calories and Protein? Are you getting all your Water in? I would say that the best thing to do would be to track all of your food and Fluid intake very carefully for a week or two just to get a sense of where you are and what's not working for you. Adding in exercise is super important. I'm surprised you haven't done that before now, but it's never too late! For cardio, start with just brisk walking. If your knees can handle running, I would HIGHLY recommend the Couch to 5k program to work your way up to running. It's a great program that can take you from only running a minute at a time to running for 30 minutes straight in as little as 9 weeks (it took me more like 12 weeks). There are apps for it and a web site that outlines what you need to do each week. For strength training, which is also VERY important, I would see if your gym has personal trainers available. You wouldn't have to meet with one regularly, since that can get expensive. But if you could just to a consultation with one where they do an initial fitness assessment and then set up a plan for you, that would be ideal.

I was specifically told not to have Soup anymore after I was moved to solids. It's basically a way of "drinking your calories", which we're told to avoid. Plus soup is LOW in Protein. I just had another reality check about that this past weekend. I've been sick with a head cold and really wanted some soup to make me feel better. My husband and I went through the entire soup aisle in the grocery store trying to find soup with protein. Most only had 7 grams of protein per cup or less. I finally found some white bean chicken chili that had 15 grams per cup and bought that. But because it was chili and pretty chunky, I couldn't eat anywhere near a whole cup of it, so I didn't even get those 15 grams. Would have been way better off eating some meat! For your fluids, there are some different things you can try to get more in. Try flavoring your Water with Mio or Crystal Light. Experiment with different temperatures of water. For me, ICE cold water in an insulated bottle goes down really easy, but anything without ice sits like lead in my stomach or causes gurgling. I also do really well with hot beverages like tea and coffee.

Do you have a retirement account? Some retirement plans will let you borrow money against them without paying any fees or taxes for early withdrawal. They have very low interest rates and a large portion of the interest goes back to you as return-on-investment. It's something to look into.

Oh, I almost forgot! Even though you should do a lot of research on your own and understand all that VSG entails, DO NOT be her nanny. Don't harp on her about what she should and shouldn't be doing post-op. If she's missing her vitamins regularly, you might mention something, but if she breaks a "rule" here or there by eating something she "shouldn't" or whatever, don't jump all over her.

First of all, I want to commend you on coming here for advice. You are clearly invested in your wife's happiness and success and that is awesome! My husband didn't think I should have the surgery, so pre-op it was a little rough. We didn't argue at all, but it meant I was unable to talk to him about my worries and concerns or share a lot of my excitement with him. Post-op, he was amazing in terms of supporting me and taking care of me and he has adapted well to my new way of eating. He has definitely come around to seeing that I was right and the surgery really was the best choice for me. Anyway, back to your question, I think just being there for her will go a long way towards helping her. Find out as much as you can and try to share in her excitement. Talk with her about how great things will be once she is happy and healthy. Make plans about the fun things you'll be able to do together. During the pre-op diet, if she has one, try to be sensitive to the fact that she can't eat much. Don't eat her favorite foods in front of her. Try to keep foods she can't eat out of the house. Once she is sleeved, the first few weeks will be very rough. She'll likely be in some level of pain or discomfort. She'll be very tired. She'll be frustrated. And she might go through some "buyer's remorse", lamenting her decision to have the surgery. She may also have some pretty violent hormonal swings, because fat stores hormones and they'll get released back into her system as the fat breaks down. So be patient with her. Don't take it personally if she lashed out or is moody. And, again, be sensitive to the fact that she will likely be experiencing a lot of "head hunger", so don't eat foods she loves in front of her. It will get easier day by day in those early weeks. Once she is back on solid foods, you can kind of get back to a "normal" life. My husband and I eat dinner together every day and I eat the same things he does, minus the sides or starches. So if he makes meatloaf and potatoes, I just eat the meatloaf. If he makes Pasta and sausage, I just eat the sausage. If he makes chicken and rice, I just eat the chicken. You get the idea. So we really have a lot of the same "meals" together as we did before.

I would recommend high protein/low carb for the simple fact that it will help prepare you for how you will have to eat post-op.

You didn't specify how far out you are from surgery. That's pretty critical information, since how much and what you can eat is very dependent on how recently you were sleeved. I had to really push myself up to at least 800 calories a day before I tried any more intense workout than walking. Less than 800 calories and I just did not have the energy for serious exercise. Once I was able to work out, I found that a good Protein snack with some carbs before a workout helped get me through. I would mix 15 grams of this: http://www.naturevalley.com/nv-products/oats-n-honey-protein-granola/ with a container of Dannon Light & Fit Greek yogurt: http://www.lightandfit.com/light-yogurt/light-and-fit-greek/raspberry And that really helped. Post work-out, I found I needed sugar to get my blood sugar up, otherwise I was dizzy. So I would eat 5-7 gummy bears. Then I would follow that up with a high protein dinner about an hour later.

Every plan is different, so you should definitely follow your surgeon's recommendations. If any of the foods on your list are too challenging for you, just go back to the previous stage for a couple more days.

I've been to Tijuana twice for surgery. Once for plastics and once for my sleeve. Both times I received EXCELLENT care and attention. I wasn't afraid at all. Tijuana is pretty much just like being in the US. A McDonalds or Starbucks on every corner. There was a Walmart right near the Marriott where I stayed for my sleeve and my room in the clinic where I had my plastics had an excellent view of an Office Max. If you ARE afraid to go out on your own, you'll be shuttled everywhere you really need to go. I would definitely not do anything different. I received amazing care from highly qualified surgeons. Much better than what I would have received in the US for even twice the price.

@@Brettnbeth and @@Mrs_O Good luck to both of you!

@@ocgirl15 I never really had to use an app to track my pills/vitamins, because I was used to taking pills daily years before my gastric sleeve. But i have heard good things about Pill Reminder. I just looked up the web site for it and it does look really good. So maybe give that a try now just taking a multi-vitamin and whatever other meds you might be on and see how it works out for you?

Earlier on, you have lots of other factors limiting the speed you can eat and the amount of chewing you do. You are right at the perfect stage where eating has become "easy" again and you might eat faster than you should without realizing it. Definitely try to be very conscious of eating slowly and chewing thoroughly for the next couple of days and see if it helps. I only had foamies once, at this past Thanksgiving, and I was over a year post-op! So it can strike at any time if we aren't careful. I definitely just ate too much too fast that day and paid the price!

With your water, you might want to experiment with different temperatures. I had a really tough time with plain water until I started drinking it SUPER ice cold in an insulated bottle. I can't drink it if there isn't ice in it.

That sounds like "foamies" and happens when something gets "stuck" in your sleeve, causing a blockage. Is it possible you are eating too fast or aren't chewing enough?

It sounds like your friend isn't keeping up with her Protein and Vitamins. It will definitely be 100% up to you to stick to the post-op plan and make sure you get in all your nutrients. It also sounds like she maybe had DS or RNY, since you say she didn't have sleeve? If that's the case, those are malabsorbative procedures that mean the patients don't get the full nutrition out of what they eat, so there is a higher risk of Vitamin deficiencies with those procedures. With the sleeve, you will at least get all of the nutrients from everything you eat, but you will still have to supplement with vitamins, because you simply won't be able to eat enough to meet all of your nutritional needs. The good news is, taking your vitamins and tracking your protein are pretty simple to do. There are lots of apps that let you set reminders for your vitamins. And there are apps that let you easily log the foods you eat. Once you get a good sense of how much protein is in the the things you commonly eat, you won't have to track your protein in an app anymore, you can just track it in your head.